An Organized Tangent
Where to start?
My law class has done its job - I’m filled with questions about a lot of things I never used to question before. We had a discussion about the legality of the US invasion of Iraq, and I realized how little I understand about my own country’s occupation. Here I am fighting Israel’s occupation when Iraq is under an occupation in my nation’s name. I felt so ashamed as I realized the war crimes the US has committed - that day I was the only American in the room, and we discussed torture of prisoners, attacks on civilians, etc, I felt incredibly ignorant. As with many Americans, I feel completely removed from our war in Iraq, and as the headlines faded I failed to take any initiative to inform myself of the situation. I was so outraged over Israel’s invasion of Gaza this winter, but how many civilians has my country killed in Iraq? Where is my outrage for the Iraqis? This trip seems to highlight how much I don’t know.
At the same time, I managed to see the Gaza invasion through the eyes of the Israelis, if briefly. We were discussing how International Humanitarian Law forbids armies from using hospitals and other civilian infrastructure to shield themselves. So of course the smartest thing to do, if you are a rebellious, unrecognized authority such as Hamas, is to use those building for hiding places or weapons storage. If you know your enemy is disregarding International Humanitarian Law, why should you hold yourself to higher standards? It just ends up that everyone is wrong.
My class was especially interesting today due to the guest speaker invited by our professors, a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). He explained how there is one national society for Israel and one for Palestine, but until recently neither was accepted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The Israeli national chapter was employing a red Star of David as its emblem, which was not accepted by the ICRC. The Palestinian chapter was unrecognized since it did not represent a state. Eventually, the Israeli chapter accepted the red crystal as its emblem (which has been adopted in areas where it is culturally insensitive to use either the cross or the crescent, such as Darfur) and was accepted into the ICRC with the Palestinian chapter under its mandate. He also explained that the ICRC must often overlook the legal status of the situation in Israel in order to provide services to Palestinians such as family visits for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons (which are illegal - an inhabitant of an occupied territory must be held within that land, and not transported to the territory of the occupier). The ICRC used to not work with a certain illegal prison, but after family members begged for the visits the ICRC decided to turn a blind eye to aid the families. The ICRC is a unique NGO in the fact that it has observer status in the UN, usually reserved for states and liberation organizations such as the PLO.
The situations we hear about and see on a daily basis are outraging. Today though, I realized that I’m not as shocked as I was on my trip last summer. In less than three weeks, I’ve managed to build my own simple life here and forget that I should be seething at all of the daily injustices caused by the occupation. I should be constantly outraged, but I’m not. No wonder people here give up - they can’t put their whole lives on hold to fight the occupation, because the occupation is their life. The ones who do fight are extraordinary - the man at Beit Arabiya in Anata who has rebuilt his house four times and is waiting for the fifth demolition, the one who was young and hoped to change the system and is now working at a research institute trying to inspire someone with more youth and energy… It’s weirdly depressing and uplifting at the same time. People here are astounding. The resilience is heartwarming and a bit heartbreaking too. Every day when I walk to work I see little boys helping their fathers in the family shop, and I think of how difficult their lives will be. It’s a very sad, weird, amazing place.
The absurdity of the region played itself out this evening in a modern-day, West Bank Romeo & Juliet scene. As Audrey and I hung our laundry over the garden outside our second-story window, our Palestinian Romeo-wannabe was trying to get our cellphone numbers. Whenever we went back inside he would throw little pebbles against the window to get our attention. And of course, for comic relief, we accidentally dropped a sweater down into the garden, forcing us to retrieve it from him. We couldn’t do anything but laugh at the strange play unfolding around us.
As we tried to clean our clothes and organize everything for our weekend trip to Ramallah/Haifa, it was funny to realize that our belongings have scattered themselves all over the flat - this really has become our home. Despite that, we’re glad to get away again!
